Too many women in this country suffer serious health harms or even die during pregnancy and just after. Too many infants in this country suffer serious health harms or die in the first year after they are born.

There is no getting around it: Maternal and infant “morbidity and mortality” are a disgrace of the U.S. health care system.

The unacceptable injury to and deaths of infants, statistically speaking, are not declining. The debilitation and death for moms, especially for those of color, already has become a public health crisis. And it is worsening.